RADIO-TELEGRAM TO BELA KUN

Written:Written on April 4, 1919Published:First published in 1958 inDokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, Vol. II.

      Printed from the typewritten copy.

      Translated from the German.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page205.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

BelaKunBudapest

Iam sending you a copy of our radio-telegram of today
to Pichon on the question of the exchange with
France.[1]

OurRed Cross Commission headed by Manuilsky left for
France to organise repatriation of our men, but has been
held up. We promised to repatriate the French servicemen
still with us if repatriation of our men from France is
organised and proceeds at full speed. The French Government
prevented Manuilsky’s Commission from organising this
work. Of the 35,000 Russian soldiers in France, Africa and
Salonica, France wants to repatriate 900 men now and
makes empty promises of repatriating our soldiers later on
as opportunity offers, but in exchange for this, France
demands that we should immediately let all the Frenchmen
go home.

Francewants to send Manuilsky’s mission back together
with the 900 Russian soldiers, although nothing has been
done to organise further repatriation. France wants to get
everything and give almost nothing and get rid of
Manuilsky.

Yetwe are aware that our soldiers who remain in France
and refuse to join the army are subjected to the most
monstrous persecution and that Manuilsky has been forbidden
to establish any sort of contact with them.

Werefuse, on such conditions, to let the Frenchmen go
home. This is the substance of my radio-telegram, a copy
of which is being sent to you. The French will shout blue
murder, and tell the Americans every sort of disgusting lie.
Please hand a copy of our Note to the American
representative for his government.

[1]Thisapparently refers to the radio-telegram on the subject of
exchanging prisoners of war, sent on April 4, 1919, on behalf
of G. V. Chicherin, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, to
the French Foreign Minister, S. Pichon (seeDokumenty vneshnei
politiki SSSR, Vol. II, 1958, pp. 112–15).